L’altra figura, 1983
GPO-0501
The Other Figure
Two whole and one fractured plaster casts, white plinths
Two casts 45 x 23 x 23 cm each, two plinths 120 x 40 x 40 cm each, overall dimensions 165 x 85 x 40 cm
The work was executed in six numbered editions and two (?) unnumbered editions.
| 1/6 | Present whereabouts unknown |
| 2/6 | Mazzoleni, London-Turin |
| 3/6 | Present whereabouts unknown |
| 4/6 | Private collection |
| 5/6 | Present whereabouts unknown |
| 6/6 | Private collection, Lausanne |
| N.n. | Linde AG, Munich |
| N.n. | Private collection, Brescia |
Two plaster casts of the bust of Phidias's Athena Lemnia are placed relatively close and facing each other, so as to hold down the fragments from the third exploded plaster cast (some of the fragments are scattered around the two busts).
In the artist's words: “Rather than exchanging a gesture of offering, each of the two figures appears as if they were wondering whether those remains might not be a part of themselves, or perhaps the parts of ‘another figure’, after all, identical to them”.1
The same theme was developed in five other versions, respectively made in 1979-80 (GPO-0419), in 1984 (GPO-0519, GPO-0530) and in 1986 (GPO-0577, GPO-0578).
1 G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2004), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 419 p. 427.
Athena Lemnia, Roman copy of the 5th century BC bronze original by Phidias, marble, h 43 cm, Museo Civico Archeologico, Bologna.
| 1984 | Milan, Studio Marconi, Giulio Paolini, from 9 February, not repr. |
| 1985-86 | New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Transformations in Sculpture. Four Decades of American and European Art, 22 November 1985 - 16 February 1986, repr. no. 114 p. 173; edition 5/6. |
| 1986 | San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Second Sight: Biennial IV, 21 September - 16 November, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 37 p. 60, repr. p. 46; edition on loan from Marian Goodman Gallery. |
| 1987 | Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Avant-Garde in the Eighties, 23 April - 12 July, cat. no. 81, not repr.; edition on loan from Marian Goodman Gallery. |
| 1990-91 | Barcelona, Fundació Joan Miró, Antiguitat-modernitat en l’art del segle XX, 13 December 1990 - 10 February 1991, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 220, repr. p. 187; edition 6/6. |
| 1993 | Salzburg, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Utopia. Arte italiana 1950-1993, 24 July • 31 August, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 70 p. 137, col. repr. p. 105; edition 6/6. |
| 2002 | Siena, Palazzo delle Papesse, Centro Arte Contemporanea, De Gustibus. Collezione privata Italia, 3 March - 12 May, repr. p. 258; edition 4/6. |
| 2004 | Paris, La Maison Rouge, Fondation Antoine De Galbert, L’intime, le collectionneur derrière la porte, 5 June - 26 September, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 126, repr. p. 7 (exhibition view); edition 5/6. |
| 2014 | Milan, Artevalori, Giulio Paolini. Raccolta di opere, 5 June - 18 July, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 42, col. repr. pp. 12-13; edition 4/6. |
| 2024-25 | London, Mazzoleni Art, Mythology Reinterpreted. A Journey through Ancient Inspiration in Modern & Contemporary Art, 8 October - 6 December, touring to: Turin, Mazzoleni, 6 March - 28 June 2025, col. repr. pp. 33, 47 (exhibition view London) and on second cover, referred to in the text by B. Casini pp. 12-13; edition 2/6. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2004), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 419 p. 427. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. La Casa di Lucrezio, exhibition catalogue, Spoleto, Palazzo Rosari Spada (Casalecchio di Reno: Grafis Edizioni, 1984), repr. p. 24. |
| • | Casa Vogue 154 (Milan), July-August, 1984, repr. on cover (exhibition view Milan 1984, with furnishings). |
| • | Paolini. Melanconia ermetica, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Galerie Maeght Lelong, 1985, repr. p. 23. |
| • | F. Poli, Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), repr. no. 105 (exhibition view Milan 1984). |
| • | M. Unterdörfer, Die Rezeption der Antike in der Postmoderne: der Gipsabguss in der italienischen Kunst der siebziger und achtziger Jahre (Weimar: VDG Verlag und Datenbank für Geisteswissenschaften, 1998), pp. 41, 49-50, 166, cat. no. 51 p. 144, repr. no. 38 p. 224 (exhibition view Milan 1984). |
| • | Skulptur-Biennale im Münsterland 1999, exhibition catalogue, Münster, 1999, pp. 61, 63, repr. p. 61. |
| • | R. Lachat, L’Art en Italie 1945-1995 (Paris: Nouvelles Éditions françaises, 1999), col. repr. p. 145 (work not installed by the artist). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 501 p. 512, repr. (exhibition view Milan 1984). |
| • | T. Dufrêne, “Permanenza di una tendenza al classico e riappropriazione dell’antico nella scultura del XX secolo”, in Costanti del classico nell’arte del XX e XXI secolo, exhibition catalogue, Catania, Fondazione Puglisi Cosentino (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2009), p. 66 (erroneously dated “1977”), not repr. |
| • | G. Verzotti, “Classical / Exemplary” in Collectible DRY Don't repeat yourself 9, Autumn-Winter, 2018, repr. pp. 22-23. |
| • | A. Soldaini, “‘Cos’altro c’è da dire?’”, in Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), p. 36, repr. |
| • | M. Veneziani, Senza eredi (Venice: Marsilio Editori, 2024), col. repr. on cover. |
